Video Games: In the Grim Darkness of licensed Games.

[Corvinus85]

33 minutes ago, Fez said:

DUUUUNE! is coming back. Funcom has made a deal with Legendary, who are producing the new movie, to put out three games over six years. Licensed games like this have gotten rarer, and much better than they used to be, so I'm not concerned about that. But the best that can be said about Funcom is that they often make games that are interesting and ambitious but very flawed. So we'll see. I'd love to play a really well done Dune game.

Also, I've been replaying Steamworld Heist. That game rocks.

For the Duke!!!!!

[Ran]

First game being open world multiplayer suggests something in the survival genre like Conan Exiles -- which, it must be said, came out quite polished compared to a load of other such games that exist these days. I'm holding out a little hope for an MMO though, but I think that a lot of companies are (rightfully) deciding that it's just not worth it to go that route.

Interestingly, their next Conan game is an RTS made by Petroglyph, aka a bunch of the Westwood team that made Dune II. I will be shocked if they don't team up with Petroglyph for the second or third of the games they're licensed to make.

[A True Kaniggit]

Sigh

It seems Louisiana is finally able to apply state taxes directly onto my Steam purchases.

A black day.

[Jace, Extat]

7 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Sigh

It seems Louisiana is finally able to apply state taxes directly onto my Steam purchases.

A black day.

Man the Guns?

[A True Kaniggit]

3 minutes ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

Man the Guns?

Correct.

+$1.76

 

Or were you suggesting I overthrow the LA state government? I'm irritated, but I'm not that irritated.  

[Jace, Extat]

2 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Correct.

+$1.76

 

Or were you suggesting I overthrow the LA state government? I'm irritated, but I'm not that irritated.  

I've begun stockpiling fuel and manufacturing hydrogenation plants. You have Rexist Jaceland's support.

[Werthead]

On 2/27/2019 at 8:51 PM, Ran said:

First game being open world multiplayer suggests something in the survival genre like Conan Exiles -- which, it must be said, came out quite polished compared to a load of other such games that exist these days. I'm holding out a little hope for an MMO though, but I think that a lot of companies are (rightfully) deciding that it's just not worth it to go that route.

Interestingly, their next Conan game is an RTS made by Petroglyph, aka a bunch of the Westwood team that made Dune II. I will be shocked if they don't team up with Petroglyph for the second or third of the games they're licensed to make.

100% this. It's implausible that they won't be looking to channel the Dune II nostalgia. RTS remakes are also getting popular, as we've had Homeworld and StarCraft II already and WarCraft III is coming out this year, with the first Command & Conquer next year.

I recently replayed the original Dune game - the adventure/RPG hybrid from Cryo - and it holds up surprisingly well for a game that's 27 years old this year. Really enjoyed it.

[Iskaral Pust]

I started playing Golf Clash on iPhone.  This is addicting.  On the plus side, I’m not playing Threes so often now. 

[Toth]

Heh. Phone games. I just finished my task of completing the Madoka Magica main in Magia Record! I blew most of my saved up free gems, but I got Mami during the current gacha.

In other news... Last week I actually got back to my old savegame of Attila: Total War, playing the "The Last Roman" DLC as Belisarius. It's bugged, somehow. Apparently I had already mostly dealt with the Vandals and therefore the Ostrogoths were next on my kill list. Oddly enough, it was a mistake to hurry and save the imprisoned Amalasuntha. For some reason she became queen of the Ostrogoths again and they peaced out... stopping my army and making the whole reconquest of Italy void despite me still missing Ravenna to succeed with my objective.

Also... the only battle I fought was against the last city of the Vandals. Three quarters of their army was stuck on boats while I was besieging their city. The whole battle basically boiled down to my Romans sitting at the beach waiting for the Vandals to get slaughtered one boat at a time. It was boring as hell.

[Jace, Extat]

2 minutes ago, Toth said:

Heh. Phone games. I just finished my task of completing the Madoka Magica main in Magia Record! I blew most of my saved up free gems, but I got Mami during the current gacha.

In other news... Last week I actually got back to my old savegame of Attila: Total War, playing the "The Last Roman" DLC as Belisarius. It's bugged, somehow. Apparently I had already mostly dealt with the Vandals and therefore the Ostrogoths were next on my kill list. Oddly enough, it was a mistake to hurry and save the imprisoned Amalasuntha. For some reason she became queen of the Ostrogoths again and they peaced out... stopping my army and making the whole reconquest of Italy void despite me still missing Ravenna to succeed with my objective.

Also... the only battle I fought was against the last city of the Vandals. Three quarters of their army was stuck on boats while I was besieging their city. The whole battle basically boiled down to my Romans sitting at the beach waiting for the Vandals to get slaughtered one boat at a time. It was boring as hell.

That game has some serious fucking warts. It's confusing how they keep simplifying the mechanics but the gameplay is increasingly broken.

[A True Kaniggit]

BOOM! China completely swallowed the bait. They actually thought the marine landing at Shanghai was my main attack. After they sent forces south to contain the invasion I unleashed my Armored divisions upon Beijing. Their northern front has completely collapsed and soon all of China will be under Japanese control. With the steel acquired from China I will be able to begin producing large amounts of carriers. The planned invasion of California in 1952 is currently on schedule.

[aceluby]

Finished up RDR on PS3, ended up getting the download since the disc I got was basically unplayable.  Less immersive than RDR2, but there were definitely some things I liked better. 

Have a few games going right now in the meantime.

Picked up Civ 6 on the Switch, which was fun for the few games I played.  Haven't played a civ game since civ 2.  Seems to be less opportunity for domination via war and more focus on religion or winning the space race.  Taking a break after the last win I had for now.

While that one's on the back burner I've been slowly making my way through the South Park game on the Switch.  Pretty funny and some classic JRPG gameplay is making it pretty fun.

Got Baulder's Gate for my phone since I was looking for something while waiting to get my teeth cleaned.  Really complex, but right up my alley.  Started with a strength character to start and have played it for about 5 hours total.

Lastly, been playing the new Spiderman game while at home, which is feeding my open world itch.  Ridiculously similar to the Batman series.  Like Batman my favorite parts are the stealth missions and taking out groups of guys w/out being seen.  I'm about 3/4 of the way through that game and should finish it in the next couple of weeks.

 

[briantw]

Yeah the Spidey PS4 game is great.  Really liked the last act of the main story.  Some great boss fights and moments.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

On 2/27/2019 at 2:15 AM, Gorn said:

I recently quit Assassin's Creed: Unity, and I agree with the critical consensus that it is the worst Assassin's Creed game. Aside from the fact that its royalist/reactionary sympathies leave an unpleasant taste in my mouth, I disliked the change in fight mechanics, co-op play being forced upon me, juggling multiple in-game currencies, as well as major bugs which still remain unfixed to this day even with the latest patch. The protagonist is boring, the main story is meh, and it misses huge opportunities provided by its setting. My breaking point was when I accidentally started the Dead Kings DLC midway through the main game, played it for an hour, became bored and wanted to return to the main game, but was not allowed not do so. I quit and uninstalled it.

I started Syndicate instead, and from what I've seen so far it's a major improvement.

Hi Gorn (is your name a Gothic reference?). I actually really liked Unity, but I know I'm in the minority. I loved the upgrading of cafes and things like that, and I went to Syndicate (and Odyssey) hoping for more of that, but the games seem to be moving away from those types of things. Either way, I kind of just enjoyed the game in general. Syndicate is fun too, but it feels...I don't know. Something is off on it for me. 

I like all those older ones better than Odyssey in terms of Assassin's Creed games. Odyssey is a ton of fun, but I don't feel like an assassin most of the time because of the leveling. I wouldn't want it to change, necessarily, but I had to just learn that I couldn't kill someone from the shadows as easily.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

On 2/27/2019 at 1:51 PM, Ran said:

First game being open world multiplayer suggests something in the survival genre like Conan Exiles -- which, it must be said, came out quite polished compared to a load of other such games that exist these days. I'm holding out a little hope for an MMO though, but I think that a lot of companies are (rightfully) deciding that it's just not worth it to go that route.

Interestingly, their next Conan game is an RTS made by Petroglyph, aka a bunch of the Westwood team that made Dune II. I will be shocked if they don't team up with Petroglyph for the second or third of the games they're licensed to make.

I like Conan Exiles quite a bit. I've only done single player (and added mods so that was feasible in terms of leveling and being able to build). But I loved the atmosphere of that game. It's a lot like Ark, but the building feels cleaner.

[Gorn]

On 3/4/2019 at 4:40 PM, Simon Steele said:

Hi Gorn (is your name a Gothic reference?). I actually really liked Unity, but I know I'm in the minority. I loved the upgrading of cafes and things like that, and I went to Syndicate (and Odyssey) hoping for more of that, but the games seem to be moving away from those types of things. Either way, I kind of just enjoyed the game in general. Syndicate is fun too, but it feels...I don't know. Something is off on it for me. 

I like all those older ones better than Odyssey in terms of Assassin's Creed games. Odyssey is a ton of fun, but I don't feel like an assassin most of the time because of the leveling. I wouldn't want it to change, necessarily, but I had to just learn that I couldn't kill someone from the shadows as easily.

The name is actually a variation of my real-world name

To be honest, my biggest problems with Unity were historical and political - as someone who is both very familiar with and fond of the French Revolution, I was really annoyed with the game painting the Jacobins as mustache-twirling villains, Robespierre as some proto-Stalin, and French royalty and aristocracy as blameless victims, although I'm resigned to the fact that this is pretty much the default in English-language depictions of the period.

So far, I'm enjoying Syndicate much more. The story is crap, but at least I can zip around the rooftops like Victorian Bat(wo)man, and I like the fights and the carriage riding mechanics. The side activities are also fun, and I intentionally stopped myself from buying the maps of secrets, which prevented the open-world section from turning into an icon hunt. I also appreciate the game skipping the origin story for once and letting me play as a full-fledged Assassin from the start. I'm at about 25% completion right now.

[Rhom]

Now reports are coming out that Anthem can actually “brick” your PS4.  

What in the actual fuck is EA doing here?!!!?  If they wanted to shut down BioWare, they could have just done it without the public humiliation first!  

I have not had a lot of time to play Anthem yet, but I have enjoyed what I have played.  I’ve lost connection a couple times but have never experienced a complete console power failure as some describe.  All so bizarre.

[Fez]

29 minutes ago, Rhom said:

Now reports are coming out that Anthem can actually “brick” your PS4.  

What in the actual fuck is EA doing here?!!!?  If they wanted to shut down BioWare, they could have just done it without the public humiliation first!  

I have not had a lot of time to play Anthem yet, but I have enjoyed what I have played.  I’ve lost connection a couple times but have never experienced a complete console power failure as some describe.  All so bizarre.

It doesn't sound like any PS4s have actually bricked, even the worst shutdowns have been recovered from by booting in safe mode. However, the fact that the game is capable of crashing a PS4 so hard that that's necessary, or even just crashing so hard that the console powers down, is really insane.

Not only for Bioware and EA though, but isn't Sony supposed to ensure that games are safe for their consoles?

[Rhom]

15 minutes ago, Fez said:

It doesn't sound like any PS4s have actually bricked, even the worst shutdowns have been recovered from by booting in safe mode. However, the fact that the game is capable of crashing a PS4 so hard that that's necessary, or even just crashing so hard that the console powers down, is really insane.

Not only for Bioware and EA though, but isn't Sony supposed to ensure that games are safe for their consoles?

One would think so.  

Thought that was the whole purpose behind dedicated gaming consoles.  You don’t have the variability of the infinite hardware combinations of PC gaming and can therefore deliver a consistent experience for all users.

[Jace, Extat]

On 3/1/2019 at 9:42 AM, A True Kaniggit said:

BOOM! China completely swallowed the bait. They actually thought the marine landing at Shanghai was my main attack. After they sent forces south to contain the invasion I unleashed my Armored divisions upon Beijing. Their northern front has completely collapsed and soon all of China will be under Japanese control. With the steel acquired from China I will be able to begin producing large amounts of carriers. The planned invasion of California in 1952 is currently on schedule.

Help me, Broseph!

I've been futzing around with the Monarchist Germans, the Japanese, and Netherlands. How do I refit my ships??? I figured out how to edit the hulls, that's basically the same. But I can't figure out how to give the new upgrades to all existing ships. HELP ME BROTATO CHIP!!! My navies are badly undergunned.